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Liquidated damages (under the ADEA) must equal amount of back pay.

Tyler v. Union Oil Company of California, 304 F.3d 379 (5th Cir. August 27, 2002) - This is an ADEA action involving six plaintiffs who lost their jobs as part of a reduction in force. All of the plaintiffs accepted severance packages, but the release agreements did not comply with the Older Workers' Benefit Protection Act. As a result, the releases were not valid. At trial, five of the plaintiffs prevailed on their claims of age discrimination. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit holds: (1) Unocal is equitably estopped from asserting that the EEOC charges were filed too late because a reasonable person would have believed that Unocal's release was valid and therefore there was no right to sue; (2) the district court did not err in admitting plaintiffs' statistical evidence (most of the objections went to weight, not admissibility); (3) the one plaintiff who lost presented insufficient objective evidence of constructive discharge (he was actually offered a lateral transfer and accepted a severance package a few days later); (4) there was sufficient evidence to support the verdicts in favor of the other plaintiffs; (5) the district court erred in awarding only $2,500 in liquidated damages to each prevailing plaintiff (a court is required to award an amount equal to the back pay award); (6) the district court did not err by limiting the back pay award and by excluding a front pay award based upon the fact that Unocal eventually ceased all operations at this location as of May 25, 2000; and (7) the ADEA does not provide for an award of expert witness fees. This case summary does not address the FLSA issue. Click here to see actual case.